June 10, 2006

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi recovering from illness

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar's opposition leader, Aung San
Suu Kyi, was recovering at her home on Saturday from an illness
thought to be a bowel disorder, a spokesman for her party said.

Police general Khin Yi told reporters in Yangon Suu Kyi,
whose latest detention began in May 2003, had been ill but "she
was not hospitalized."

He did not give further details. It was not immediately
clear if she had been taken to hospital for treatment.

National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman Nyan Win had
earlier told Reuters the party leader was taken to hospital on
Friday and returned home after she showed improvement.

"According to our latest information, she was not taken to
hospital. She was suffering from a bowel disorder and is
recovering now," NLD spokesman Nyan Win said, citing unnamed
sources.

A Home Ministry source told Reuters Suu Kyi's doctor had
been allowed to treat the Nobel laureate at her Yangon home,
where she is under house arrest.

"He was permitted to stay to care for her," the source
said.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been in
prison or under house arrest for 10 of the past 17 years. Her
party won landslide elections in 1990 but the military refused
to relinquish power.

A State Department official voiced concern on Friday about
Suu Kyi's health and urged Yangon to end her detention, which
was extended for one year on May 27 despite international
pressure for her release.

Exiled groups from the former Burma, which has been under
military rule since 1962, had earlier reported that Suu Kyi,
who turns 61 on June 19, was suffering from severe diarrhea.

"We are very much concerned that a person of her age had
this kind of serious diarrhea. We are very concerned about her
well-being," said Soe Aung, spokesman for the National Council
of the Union of Burma (NCUB).